Every Season Brings Change
by wildnfree21
Summary: I really have no idea if the title is even appropriate for my story, but I wanted to keep it in with the seasons motif. It's been a while since I've written and I hope all my readers will be satisfied at my attempts at this sequel to 'Summer Love'. Plea
1. Default Chapter

*Disclaimer/Author's Note: Besides the fact that I do not own any of the characters of the Baby-sitters Club (they are entirely Ann M. Martin's) and no money has been made off of this manuscript. Another thing, it's been a while since I last wrote on the BSC series, for those who have forgotten, this is the sequel to 'Summer Love'; I hope you enjoy this and hopefully the wait was worth it. The time line is fifteen years down the line from the last book and Kristy is now 30 years old. I'm not a baseball player and I don't know how the real lives of players or anything but I've made Kristy the first woman in the Major Leagues. Anyway, enjoy the reading!  
  
--wildnfree21 :) :) (: (:  
  
Prologue:  
  
A Whole New Ball Game  
  
Cameras flashed. Lights shone. People clammoured around anxiously, hoping to catch even a glimpse of me, the famous Kristy Thomas. Famous. What a word. Who'd have ever thought that it would be used to describe me?   
  
"Ms. Thomas is very exhausted from her long day of interviews," my publicist, Arlene, said from beside me. I couldn't see her, but I knew she was there. She's sixty plus years old but she has a prescence that you can feel whenever she's around. In a way, she's kind of like my grandmother, Nanny. I felt her firm hands on my elbows, urging me forward, out of the sea of people and flashing lights. I was so thankful she was there, I was getting dizzy and dazed from all that was going on. Never had I ever received so much attention. Not when I was the first woman to make it into the Major Leagues, not when I opened my first clothing line, not when I made my first movie (a flop to me, but Arlene said I was positively radiant), not _ever_. Oh, sure, the publicity was heavy when I started my baseball career (I _was_ sixteen, after all at the time) but now that I see all that's happening now, I realize that was the easiest part of being what Arlene calls a "star".  
  
Why was I getting so much attention now? Because I was retiring from baseball. After only ten years in the Majors, my multi-million dollar contract was up and I was free to go to a regular life doing anything I wanted. I could go into law, medicine or even be a janitor Bloomingdales, it didn't matter. It was a running joke that I was practically the richest woman in the world (an exaggeration, I assure you) and that I had made more money than my children (should I have any) would be able to spend. That may be, but money sure didn't buy happiness. That much I knew for certain.  
  
  
  
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"I hate to sound like one of your interviewers, but how does it feel?" Arlene asked me later that night as we stayed up late in my hotel room.  
  
I grinned and pulled my brown hair back into a ponytail. "How does _what_ feel, ma?"  
  
Ma was what I called her whenever there were never any cameras around. That's what she had been like all these years. Like a second mother to me. She held me at night and let me pretend I wasn't crying when I blew a game and rejoiced with me when I did so great in a game that they were thinking of boosting my salary up even more. She let me talk to her when I didn't have anyone to talk to--and when I first joined the Majors, I didn't. There were numerous interviews and big talk about how I would certainly do well but no one that really cared about who I really was. They were all sharks, sharks that were waiting any sign of weakness or imperfections in me so that they could horn in on that to make it into some story.  
  
"Kristin, don't play dumb. How do you feel about _retiring_? At the young, ripe age of thirty?"  
  
"God, am I _that_ old, ma?" I asked, sitting across from her.  
  
Arlene scoffed. "Old, my foot." she spat. "You're still young, believe me, girl. Ever so much younger than most woman when they retire."  
  
"Mmm." I mumbled. "Honestly, ma, I'm a little scared."  
  
"Scared? Of what?"  
  
I sighed and laid myself out on the settee of the living room area. I was starting to feel tired. "Scared of everything. The end of my baseball career, the thought of having to do grown up stuff, of going back to Stoneybrook to see everyone from my childhood." I paused. "Don't get me wrong, I'm dying to see my family and it'll be great seeing Mary Anne again, but, do you think things will be different?"  
  
"Of course." Arlene answered truthfully. "Life happens. People will be grown up. Things will be different. But you never know. Change can be a good thing." she gestured to me, lying on the couch. "Look at you. You were just an awkward little girl when you started professional baseball, now look at you. You're all grown up and sophisticated and you can fit into any world you want. The tough, athletic world, the bubbly, glamourous, world of Hollywood. People love you. You're ever so much more attractive than you were when you were sixteen."  
  
I laughed. "Thanks, ma."  
  
"Nah, you were all right. But what was it that People magazine said about you? The sexiest woman of the year?"  
  
"Sports Illustrated, ma. And they said I was the Major's sexiest bombshell. They must think I'm an idiot--I'm the Major's only bombshell. Hell, I'm the only woman."  
  
"That's a technicality, and--"  
  
"To hell with technicalities." we both finished at the same time.  
  
We were both silent for a long time before Arlene got up and went to the little kitchen nook. She returned nearly ten minutes later with two cups of hot chocolate with sticks of cinnamon stuck into the mountain of whipped cream.  
  
"Ma, I'm gonna miss you." I said, taking the mug from her.  
  
"I'll miss you, too, Kit-Kat." That figured. I called her 'ma', she called me 'Kit-Kat'. I'd have killed her if she ever let the press get a hold of that information. "But, it's about time that I retired as well, Kristin. I'm getting old and I want to spend time with my sister in Canada."  
  
I sipped my hot chocolate and nodded. "I want to be home too."  
  
Arlene laughed. "Maybe with me out of the way, you can start having those wild, out-of-control parties that big sports stars are supposed to have, eh?"  
  
I laughed hard, "Oh, yes, of course. The sole purpose of my life these past fifteen years was to make it big enough so I could blow my reputation on one night of drunken party-ing."  
  
"You were always so serious." Arlene said admirably. "Maybe now that you have some free time, you can be a kid again."  
  
We talked some more about things, remembering different areas of my life that were monumental: my first professional home run, my first red carpet walk, etc... It wasn't long before I had two hours before my flight.   
  
"Ma, I'm seriously going to miss you." I whispered as she hugged me tight in the airport. There were countless members of the press milling around, taking pictures about what should have been a nice, private farewell. But I didn't care. I would miss her.   
  
Before I boarded my plane, my whole team arrived. All big, broad-shouldered men that became big brothers to me ever since I became a Major Leaguer.   
  
"Good-bye, Kristy." Big Joe said in his deep baritone as he scooped me up in his arms and hugged me so tight I almost suffocated.   
  
"Bye." I whispered, fighting back tears.  
  
"You take care of yourself when you're back in the country." Another of my teammates told me. He was from New York and always teased me of being from Stoneybrook.  
  
"I love you, too." I returned and hugged him again.   
  
Then, as if I were being filmed, I saw myself swept away into the plane, seated in the first-class section and looking out the window as we taxi-ed out of the airport runway. My mind blurred and cleared, remembering good times and bad times of my sojourn into the world of sports. So much had happened since I was fifteen. Maybe too much. And although my eyes still blurred from the flashing cameras, I was suddenly becoming more aware of how evanescent my career was. The flight was long and it gave me a lot of time to think. And by the time my plane was landing in the airport in Stamford, I felt like I had slipped out of a time warp. It felt like the past fifteen years had been all a dream and I was simply slipping back into my teenage years, slipping back into my childhood, where everything was caught in the middle of being fairly simple but horribly complex. I was Kristy Thomas. No longer Sports Illustrated's sexiest bombshell or Hollywood's part-time glamour girl.   
  
I was back home. People were leaving the plane now, every now and then stopping to say "hello" to me or ask me for an autograph. I smiled and did as they asked but all the while my stomach churned, my heart raced and my throat swallowed because I knew somehow without even being certain that my family who I hadn't seen in the longest was waiting for me inside the airport terminal. And that a very different chapter of my life was about to begin. I would be transplanted back into a world that was fifteen years older than when I had left it. My brothers and sister would be older. My best friends would be older. No need to say that my parents would be older. I would have to adjust to it. And like it or not, I would for the most part be doing it alone.  
  
Here goes nothing... and with adrenaline racing through my veins, I left the airplane to start a whole new ballgame. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:  
  
"There! There she is!" I heard one of my brothers, David Michael, exclaimed the second I stepped out of the terminal. The inward smile that I had been planning to hold in suddenly burst forward and I rushed toward the young man with dark, curly hair and deep brown eyes. The little boy that I had baby-sat for so many times. The little boy I had started the Baby-sitters' Club for. A whole rush of emotions and memories flooded me and I started to cry. Yes, in public. But they were tears of happiness and not misery.  
  
No sooner had David Michael embraced me, Charlie and Sam, my two older brothers, tackled me. I almost couldn't breathe and had to tell them to hold back. They stepped back only a few inches before my stepsiblings, Karen and Andrew, attacked me from behind. I gasped for air but grinned so hard my face ached.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. I didn't know I was going to need my body guards here." I laughed and turned to face them. I almost didn't recognize the two. Karen, now in her early twenties, looked gorgeous. Her curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks paired with her bright blue eyes made her look like a doll, or maybe one of those angels that you put on the top of Christmas trees. And Andrew...well, he definitely looked different. I wouldn't have been able to tell that he and Karen were brother and sister. He had dyed his hair jet black, gotten sea green contacts and had a piercing in his eyebrow, bottom lip, in both ears and was dressed all in black.   
  
"What in the world happened to you, Andrew?!" Despite how intimidating he looked, I couldn't help it. The old loudmouth slipped out. His tough demeanor suddenly disappeared and he laughed fondly.   
  
"Do I look that bad? I thought I was just making a statement." He replied nonchalantly.  
  
"It's just such a change from the little boy I knew..." I said, curiosity making me touch the ring on his eyebrow. "It's different."  
  
Karen smiled and rolled her eyes. "Andy's just going through his rebellious, punk stage." She glared at him through half-closed eyes. "Don't let him fool you, underneath all the tough-guy clothes lies a computer geek and probably the future valedictorian at the University at Stamford."  
  
I was speechless, there was so much going around me I was having trouble taking it all in. On my left were Charlie, Sam and David Michael talking to each other and making comments about how I turned out. And on my right were Karen and Andrew who were just now getting into a heated argument.  
  
"Andrew, how old are you now?" I asked, completely out of context.   
  
Andrew didn't look a bit fazed, only answered, "Nineteen."  
  
"Sorry. I just...I'm so overwhelmed right now, I don't think I can... I think I need to sit down."  
  
"Kristy! You're back!" a slightly more girlish voice piped up from behind me. "I knew you would be! But everyone sent me to buy these flowers for you!"   
  
I parted the small crowd around me and saw a girl about seventeen-years-old, with sleek, black hair, black almond shaped eyes and a tan that most women pay through the nose to get.   
  
"Oh my... Emily Michelle?!" I exclaimed. Oh my Lord. Now I was really light-headed.   
  
"Kristy, you're not going to cry, are you?" Charlie asked, smirking at me.  
  
"No, but I think I'm going to faint from all these surprises...seeing everybody after so long..." I felt a lump catch in my throat. "Pictures just aren't enough sometimes..."   
  
Karen smiled sympathetically. "Let's get you seated somewhere." She took my arm and looked sharply at Andrew. "Andy, you and David Michael go to the carousel to get Kristy's bags." Andrew gave her an incredulous "are-you-bossing-me-around look" but shrugged and he and David Michael left to do as she said. I smiled, suddenly brought down a tad at seeing that Karen, even fifteen years later, was still the one contender I had for bossiness.  
  
My brothers and sisters led me to a bench and sat me down so I could catch my breath.   
  
"Here." Charlie said, handing me a bottle of water. "Maybe we shouldn't have all come to airport. It's a lot to handle."  
  
I shook my head vigourously. "It's a lot. But I'm glad you're all here. I'd better get used to all the surprises. I know I'll be shocked to see how everyone else turned out."  
  
After an hour at the airport, I was finally in the passenger's seat of Charlie's SUV and staring breathlessly out the window at all the scenery passing by.   
  
"How is everyone doing?" I wanted to know. I was dying for everything that had happened while I was away. It was like reading a book and getting to the point where everything was building up to an exciting conclusion. "I want to know everything!"  
  
Charlie laughed. "Well, everyone has their own story to tell." He paused. "I met a girl. Sam's met a girl. David Michael has been playing the field, so to speak. Karen has a boyfriend in business and Andrew isn't looking for any kind of relationship."  
  
I scowled. "I wasn't talking about relationship-wise. How about something interesting?"  
  
Charlie laughed again. "You were never really one for romance." No. I wasn't. "And unless you call the stock market interesting, I don't think you'd want to hear about my life."  
  
I bit my bottom lip. "Ooh, sorry Charlie. I love you, but I've had enough about stocks and bonds to last me for the rest of my life." I paused. "Where were mom and Watson? And what about Samantha?" Samantha was my youngest sister. Mom and Watson had her when I was about sixteen. I hadn't seen much of anybody over the years but I knew the least about Samantha.  
  
"Well, they really wanted to come to the airport and all, but they had to stay back at home. Samantha's a little sick. Watson went to the pharmacist to pick her up some medicine."  
  
Stoneybrook had changed. At least to me. There were no drastic changes. The trees that lined all the streets were the same, just older. And most of the buildings in town were still there, plus a couple of new ones. What really got me was the crowd that was hanging around. I knew all of them. They were the charges that I used to baby-sit for but it looked like they had stepped out of a time warp and were all grown up. I wanted to say a quick "hello" to each of them but I really wanted to be home most of all so I decided it could wait.  
  
While I endured the agonizing wait of returning home, Emily Michelle and Karen filled me in on everything of value that was going on. Karen had graduated from Stoneybrook University with a major in journalism. She was working as a clerk in the local paper and was gradually going to work at being a reporter. Emily Michelle was just graduating from Stoneybrook High School and she was in the top ten of her class. She was being shy about it when Karen burst out and told me that she was third from the top.  
  
"She would have been at least salutatorian if she had taken one more Advanced Class this past year."  
  
Emily Michelle rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Karen. You're such an interventionist."  
  
Karen tapped me on the shoulder. "You see the way she tells me I'm bossy? I'm surprised that she isn't the Vale."  
  
I smiled at them, thinking about how much of myself I saw in Karen and how their relationship was the way ours had been.  
  
"You're all very successful sounding to me." I replied.  
  
Sam interjected. "Well, they had a lot to live up to."  
  
I turned around in my seat. "What about you, Sam? And you, David Michael? What are you two up to?"  
  
Sam looked out the window. "I have my own restaurant."  
  
David Michael looked up proudly from his seat in the back. "I'm a writer! For the college sports teams."  
  
Something inside me twinged. Sam owned a restaurant... And David Michael wrote about sports. I had just been sharply reminded of my real father. The one who had abandoned us to start a career as a sports writer but then changed his mind and became a chef in his new wife's restaurant. The feeling of uneasiness past and I was able to think slightly better of Patrick and Zoey. But no way was I going to ask about them when Charlie had already tensed up when Sam told what he did. There was probably no way that he could know how our father and stepmother were doing.   
  
Bradford Court, Burnt Hill Road, Fawcett Avenue, McClelland Lane... I almost let out a scream as we came onto our street.   
  
"My God, it hasn't changed one bit!" I said, smiling so hard my cheeks were screaming at me.  
  
Charlie seemed amused but continued driving without a word.  
  
"Does it really look the same, Kristy?" Karen asked happily. "Does it really?"  
  
"Everything!" I exclaimed, practically pressing my face against the window.   
  
I spotted our house from five other houses away. I started fidgeting in my seat and I swear Charlie slowed down just to irritate me.  
  
"Hurry, Charlie!" Emily Michelle cheered. "Hurry up, I'll bet they're all-"  
  
"What was that?" I asked, turning sharply in my seat, a joyful gleam in my eye. I may have been gone for fifteen years but I still knew when a kid was hiding something from me. You can take the girl out of the baby-sitter role but you can't take the baby-sitter out of the girl.  
  
Emily Michelle sat back and looked solemnly. "I don't know what you're talking about." But the corner of her lips tilted up slightly.  
  
"Charlie," I said, looking squarely at him. "is someone really sick? Or are you hiding something from me?"  
  
Charlie rolled his eyes. "Kristy, you've always been so paranoid."  
  
Despite his flippant attitude, I barely allowed him to pull into the driveway and make a complete stop before I bolted out of the car and ran for the house. I didn't care how immature I looked flying out of the car and scrambling up the driveway and yanking at the doorknob.  
  
"Kristy, wait!" Karen shrieked, giving me just the tip-off I needed to know that there was something going on.  
  
I threw open the door and stepped into the house. I had intended to just burst in and run threw the house demanding what was going on, a grin plastered on my face. Instead, I was frozen to the floor, my feet firmly established and not willing to budge. I looked around at the foyer with all its polished furnishings and hanging plants. The late-afternoon sunlight was shining through the windows that lined the door on both sides, giving the room an ethereal glow. I looked to the left automatically, expecting to see messy lines of dirty tennis shoes and rain boots but instead saw a Collie statuette embossed with chrome and a brand new full-length mirror.  
  
Ahead of me was the newly waxed hallway, which was empty except for the artwork on the walls, all new to me. It wasn't like a stranger's house but it felt different somehow.  
  
I heard breathless laughter from behind me and my siblings all rushed in. They stopped laughing when they saw my serious countenance.   
  
"Something wrong, Slugger?" Sam asked, tilting his head to one side.  
  
I shook my head and smiled sadly. "Nothing. I'm just feeling tired all of a sudden."  
  
"Jet-lag?" Emily Michelle asked.  
  
Again, I shook my head. "Just...an overpowering sense of nostalgia."  
  
David Michael smiled and gave me a hug, rubbing my shoulders vigourously. "Well, you're home now. After a little while, that feeling will go away and you can disappear into suburban obscurity."  
  
I smiled faintly at that and walked with him down the hallway. "I want to see mom and Watson."  
  
"That's do-able." He said slowly. "But don't you miss everyone else?"  
  
"Wha--?" I was in the middle of the word when David Michael veered me to the left, into the living room and down the stairs.   
  
"SURPRISE!!!" Came a chorus of voices that nearly blew me away.   
  
My mouth dropped even wider and my eyes broadened until they were the size of dinner plates and then a flash from a camera blinded me. I blinked several times before the spots obscuring my vision cleared but when they did, I could see all the familiar faces. On the opposite side of the room stood mom and Watson, side-by-side with a young girl in-between them; there was also an enormous cake in the shape of a baseball with some inscription in icing. Spread out through the room was all my friends. Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, Dawn Schafer, Abby and Anna Stevenson. There were also my friends' parents in attendance, sitting on the couches.  
  
"Oh my..." I was speechless. An ailment I had never been afflicted with many times in my life.   
  
"WELCOME BACK, KRISTY!" my friends shouted in unison and then broke their poses to rush toward me and give me six simultaneous bear hugs. I had been deprived of so much oxygen today that it was a wonder I was still conscious after they had mauled me.   
  
"You look fantastic!" Mary Anne gushed.  
  
"You're in a dress." Claudia gasped.  
  
"What is this designer-Neiman Marcus?" Stacey inquired.  
  
"Great last game you had, Thomas!" was Abby's compliment.  
  
"You were great, Kristy." Anna said subtlety. "We were all so proud."  
  
My head spun as I tried to answer them all.  
  
"Thank you, Mary Anne. Claudia, I consider this a business suit. It's by Vivian Tamm, Stace and it was an awesome game for me." I brushed the wrinkles out of my suit and rubbed my cheeks to soothe the aching muscles.   
  
"Aw, look guys, we're making her blush!" Dawn choked out in a laugh.  
  
The girls cooed teasingly and I looked away, still smiling so hard my face would be frozen for all eternity.   
  
"Welcome home, sweetheart." My mom said, stepping up to me, her arms outstretched. Without thinking, I tumbled into her arms and squeezed her so hard that I could hear her breath get sucked out of her lungs.   
  
"I'm so happy to be home." I whispered, my nose stinging. "I missed you all so much."  
  
"Well, we're glad to have you back." She said, stepping back. There were slight strands of gray mixed in with her brown hair and fine lines here and there on her face but they only made her look more distinguished to me.   
  
"I love you, mom." I said, tears springing from the corners of my eyes. I gave her another enormous hug before Watson stepped up.  
  
"I always knew you'd do something great, Kristy." He spoke.  
  
"Oh, Watson." I mumbled as I gave him a hug as well.  
  
Watson pulled away and looked behind him to where the young girl was standing. This had to be Samantha. She had my mom's mouth and nose and ears but had Watson's eyes and pre-baldness hair.   
  
"Samantha?" I asked, stepping towards her.   
  
She nodded shyly and I pulled her into my arms. "Hey there, kid. We meet at last."  
  
"I have all of your pictures from your career." She informed me. "We keep a scrapbook-dozens of them!"  
  
I just laughed at her enthusiasm. "Well, hopefully we'll get to know each other as sisters now that I'm not a sports star anymore."  
  
"I wouldn't say that." Samantha said smiling. "You'll be a star around here for quite awhile."  
  
"Well, thank you." I said. I gestured to David Michael, Sam, Charlie, Emily Michelle, Karen and Andrew who were still standing in the doorway to the room. "They told me you were sick today."  
  
Samantha shrugged. "They lie a lot." She leaned over to me. "But I get them back."  
  
"I think we'll get along just fine."  
  
I brushed my hair away from my face and turned around to greet the rest of my surprise guests. It didn't seem like they would ever stop asking questions. It was like being interviewed by several different magazines that all wanted to know numerous unrelated topics. The adults wanted details of how I handled business when I was on the road so much. I told them that it didn't matter now that I was retired but when I was still playing I had a bunch of assistance who took charge of those matters. My brothers tossed in questions about the perks I received and new endorsement offers that were coming in the mail even before I arrived. My friends all wanted to know the glamour. I laughed and told them that there wasn't much "glamour" in my life. It had all been like one enormous dream. Every picture taken, every interview executed, every game played was... unreal.  
  
We did eventually get around to discussing the others. I wanted to know about them just as much as they wanted to know about me. Aside from my family, every one else seemed to be doing great. Mary Anne was a counselor at the Stoneybrook Middle School (Yay! Our old stomping ground!); she also did a lot of volunteer work for community functions. Dawn was a veterinarian at the Stoneybrook Vet Centre. She was always up for animal rights and anything that concerned the environment and all living things. Abby had moved back to Manhattan and was a coach for oh, ALL the sports in the local high school. She bragged (so she says) about me endlessly to her students; telling them she taught me everything I know and that she would get them all autographed paraphernalia for free (I did so willingly because I was half-dead from jet lag). Anna was accepted to play the violin with the Boston Philharmonic. Stacey and Claudia had set up a clothing store that was slowly working its way to becoming a chain. They hinted ever so subtly that if they just had a celebrity promoter their foot would be in the door. I blatantly told them that I'd do whatever I could.  
  
I don't remember much about what else happened that night or what my friends and I talked about. I just remember feeling so... light and happy. I was overjoyed at seeing my friends again. Several times I wanted to cry from how good it felt but I held back.   
  
Soon though, too soon, it became dark and people had to leave. I wanted so badly for everyone to stay. For all my friends to spend the night just like old times but I knew that it wouldn't be possible. We weren't thirteen anymore. We weren't in high school either. We just weren't kids any longer. They all had their own homes to go to. So I just said good bye to each as they left and sat headed upstairs. 


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:  
  
I slept most of the next day away, mainly from the jet lag. When I did wake up it was late afternoon. I showered and changed into a clean outfit before heading downstairs. My home was still re-introducing itself to me; the first thing it did was tell me to watch the bottom step of the staircase. A part of the step had chipped away (I didn't think I wanted to know how it happened) and I slipped abruptly and landed on my behind.   
  
"Ow." I mumbled sorely. I took my time pulling myself up.  
  
"Kristy?" Came a familiar voice from the kitchen.  
  
"Nannie?" I shrieked, jumping up. "Nannie, is that you?"  
  
From around the corner, Nannie leaned and gave me a smile. It's amazing how the woman never seemed to age.   
  
"Oh Nannie, I've missed you!" I exclaimed, jumping up and rushing to give her a hug.  
  
"I'm sorry I wasn't here for your welcoming party-but I was on a trip with my canasta group and it ran late-traffic was murder."  
  
"It doesn't matter." I told her.   
  
"Well, come on. Let me look at you." Nannie said, holding me out at arms length. "My, how you've grown!"  
  
I rolled my eyes. That sounded like something Aunt Theo would say. "Well, it had to happen sometime, right?"  
  
Nannie shrugged proudly. "I knew it would. You have my genes."  
  
I giggled and helped Nannie take in the groceries she had purchased before coming home. She and I started making dinner for everyone. We were right in the middle of the chicken cacciatore when the door opened and Karen announced that she was home.   
  
"Hey, Karen." I greeted with a smile.   
  
"Hi Kristy." She smiled. "How was your first day home?"  
  
"Busy. I spent the entire day in bed."  
  
Karen giggled and set down her bag on the table. "How dreadful."  
  
"How was the newspaper?"  
  
"Hectic. My boss was late for a deadline on her paper and she, of course, made me do it."  
  
I handed Karen a knife and we started chopping up some veggies for a salad. Nannie put the chicken into the oven to bake and she clapped her hands together. "Well, we're nearly there. About a half hour more and we'll be done." She took off her oven mitt and sighed. "Would you girls mind taking over. I haven't seen my garden in nearly a week and I miss it terribly."  
  
I grinned. "Sure, Nannie. Karen and I will just have to make do with our girlish gossip."  
  
Nannie thanked us and left us to go tend to her garden. I turned to Karen and playfully tapped her hand with the dull end of the knife. "Your boss sounds gigundoly witch-y."   
  
Karen chuckle and nodded. "She is. But if I just hang in there I'll be moving up and I won't have to be under her thumb anymore."  
  
"What's her name?" I asked as I tossed the lettuce into a large bowl.  
  
"Well, her professional name is Maggie Mason." Karen replied.  
  
I looked at her suspiciously and popped a little bit of carrot into my mouth. "What's her real name, then?"  
  
"Well, you know her better as 'Cokie'." Karen told me.  
  
I almost choked on the carrot that I was swallowing. "COKIE MASON is YOUR boss?!" I cried. "I didn't think she would ever make anything of herself!"  
  
"She hasn't. Much." Karen replied. "The newspaper is this close to firing her but she always manages to slink her way out of it."  
  
"Does she bully you?" I demanded protectively of my little sister.   
  
Karen rolled her eyes. "KRISTY! I'm an adult. She can't bully me around."  
  
"Cokie will do anything she can." I told her.   
  
"I don't let her do anything to me." Karen said firmly. "I know how she was when you were in school together. Always doing bad stuff to Mary Anne and everyone else. I don't allow her to do any of that to me." She tossed the bell peppers into the bowl and patted me on the shoulder. "Don't worry. You taught me well."  
  
I sighed. "Well, if you're sure. Because I can beat her up if she bothers you."  
  
"I can do all that myself." Karen joked. "Besides, she isn't as high-and-mighty as she'd like for everyone to believe."  
  
"What do you mean?" I asked as I started tossing the salad, mixing in the Italian dressing I retrieved from the refrigerator.   
  
"Well, for one thing, Grace Blume-do you remember her?"  
  
"Cokie's lap dog? Sure. They were inseparable."   
  
"Well, Grace works in the mailroom and she's having an affair with Cokie's husband."  
  
I gasped. Despite how evil a person Cokie Mason was, I couldn't imagine anything as awful as an unfaithful spouse happening. Especially with her best friend...  
  
"How do you know this?" I asked, bringing the salad to the table.  
  
"I saw them one time." Karen told me, opening the cabinet to pull out the plates and other utensils. "They were at a cozy little restaurant just outside of Stamford. I was there with Norman and we saw them getting pretty intimate all over their lobster."  
  
"Norman?" I asked.   
  
Karen nodded, smiling shyly. "Norman Hill. He's my boyfriend."  
  
I grinned. "Oh Karen, that is SO sweet! How did you get to know him?" Norman was one of the Baby-sitters' Club's clients way back when. He had always been a little on the heavy side but a good kid. But he lives on the other side of town and attended public school while Karen attended private.   
  
"Well, our schools had a little get-together activity in middle school. You know, kind of like a mixer? My class and Norman's class were scheduled to meet. No one really wanted to talk, I guess we were all a little wary of each other but I wanted to meet new kids-"  
  
"-Naturally." I interjected.  
  
"Right, 'naturally'. So I turned to the first kid I saw-"  
  
"-Norman?"   
  
"No, Norman's girlfriend, at the time. But she ignored me. She just turned to a bunch of her friends and started talking about me. Saying mean things about how I was a spoiled rich kid. That kind of made everyone stick to their own even more. But Norman came up to me and apologized for the what happened. We ended up talking for the entire day and we swapped phone numbers and email addresses. We were friends all the way through high school. I went to college and Norman joined the military. His term ended this year and he came back and we... we just started dating."  
  
"That sounds very... romantic." I said. I thought it was cute.  
  
"When I first met Norman, he told me he used to be really overweight but he had gotten real thin then so I didn't believe him until he showed me some old pictures." Karen was telling me.  
  
As we waited for the chicken to finish, we sat in the living room and talked more about Karen's life in general and then she asked me about what my days were usually like. I told they were filled with a lot of things. I would wake up at five in the morning, go for a run with Ma, and if it was a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, there would be a ballet trainer waiting at my private gym to teach me. My workouts always varied in their contents. Ballet helped me to keep limber and agile. Kickboxing built my stamina. Pilates toned all the important parts. Yoga on the weekends kept me centred. Gymnastics was for whatever the other workouts missed. Whatever it took to keep me in peak performance, I had for nearly two hours every day before I would eat breakfast and go out to practice with my team.   
  
We'd practice for the better part of the day before we stopped. I was always exhausted by the time it was over and I barely ever went out afterward. I just pulled myself up to my hotel room and knocked out for the night. Usually after games or the World Series ended there would be mandatory parties and galas that I went to and I did have fun then but other than that I kept to myself.  
  
Karen nodded. "I read that you were real quiet when it came to your career. I had to admit it didn't sound much like you."  
  
"I am usually a very open person. But you can't say too much when you're a celebrity and not have it blow up in your face." I told her. "I guess I learned how to keep my mouth shut about some things." I suddenly laughed. That was something the BSC could never accomplish. Getting Kristy Thomas to shut her mouth.  
  
The chicken cacciatore was done before the hour was out and by then Mom, Watson, Samantha and Emily Michelle were home. I asked them where the boys were and Mom told me that they usually get home later. Sam worked hard at the restaurant and Charlie commuted to New York every day while David Michael worked at miscellaneous writing assignments. Most of the time Andrew tagged along with him. Andrew adored David Michael and the two had become best friends, according to Mom.  
  
It wasn't until we were halfway through dinner that the guys came pouring into the house and invaded the table. They told about their days and what hell it had been and dug into the food in such a way that reminded me about a litter of pigs at a feeding trough. But they were my brothers and I loved them anyway.  
  
This went on for a couple of weeks. Every day I would wake up (it got easier to wake up early as my body adjusted) and clean up around the house, watch some TV, go for a run, make dinner. It was nice being home and listening to everything my family had going on but I was beginning to be restless. I wanted some of my own daily stories to tell, not just recollections of when I wasn't yet retired. I was only thirty years old, for goodness sake. I didn't want to just rest around the house all day.  
  
I brought this up to Nannie when we were working in her garden one evening.   
  
"I feel like a slug." I told her.  
  
"You go out with your friends, don't you?" Nannie asked.  
  
"Yeah, but only on the weekends. They work most of the time." I paused. "And even then, on the weekends, they talk about their lives. Mary Anne deals with troublemakers, Dawn deals with sick animals, and Stacey and Claudia talk about their store constantly. And I barely see Abby and Anna 'cause they live somewhere else."  
  
Nannie nodded and looked thoughtful. "Well, would you like to earn money? Get a job?"  
  
I shrugged. I didn't need much money especially since the bank was going to explode with all the money I was still getting from endorsements and retirement. I explained that to Nannie and she looked puzzled. "How much money do you get?"  
  
I told her. She nearly fainted.   
  
"Child, with that money I wouldn't care if I ever did anything again." She joked.  
  
"Maybe I could do some volunteer work." I mused. "Something for the community kids? Like, I had Kristy's Krushers when I was..." I suddenly trailed off, inspired. "Hey, Nannie! That's it! Maybe I could start up Kristy's Krushers again! I could coach a bunch of new kids!" I jumped and down like a kid again. "Oh, Nannie, it would be perfect!"  
  
Nannie could only laugh at my enthusiasm and told me that it was a great idea. I told her I would be back to help with dinner. Right now I needed to jog for my ideas. I think I ran from McClelland Lane all the way to my old neighborhood. A couple of times, young kids stopped me on the street to ask me for my autograph. I answered all the questions they had about me and I eagerly asked them whether they enjoyed softball or baseball. They told me they did. I became even more excited and by the time I reached home again, I knew what I wanted to do.  
  
I helped Nannie set up the table and went upstairs to shower and change. I didn't eat that night because my idea was taking up everything that I had. The next day I would go to the community centre and set it all up. The advertising, the days the practices would be held, everything. Sleep didn't come very easily but it wasn't from unease. It was from excitement at setting my new plan into action. 


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

That morning I was up before everyone else. Since the sun hadn't risen yet it was still fairly dark outside and I crept downstairs into the kitchen. I started making everyone a little breakfast and a small snack to take with them on their day. I figured they would all stop for lunch on their own when the time came. For their breakfast I made them a goat cheese salad with chicken and different veggies and some fresh fruits that I chopped up in record time. Then I threw in some protein drinks and an energy bar from a company that I endorse. Boxes arrived the previous day and I didn't know what to do with them.

By the time everyone was up and rushing out, I was waiting by the door to hand over their food.

"What's this?" Samantha asked, looking up at me.

"A chicken salad with goat cheese, a protein shake and energy bar." I said brightly.

Samantha looked at me blankly. "Goat cheese?" She gave me a skeptical look, as if I told her to eat goat vomit instead.

"Trust me, it's delicious."

"All right. I'll give it a try." She said with a sincere smile.

I didn't buy it for a moment. "If you throw that lunch away at school you will be contributing to the death of numerous starving children in a third-world country." Samantha gave a laugh and I urged, "Give it a try."

"Alright, alright. Emily Michelle we're gonna be late." Samantha's last remark was aimed up the stairs.

There was quick thumping on the stairs as Emily Michelle rushed down, pulling her long black hair into a ponytail. As I handed her what I had made she held up a pair of my black sunglasses and looked at me pleadingly.

"Can I borrow these? They are too cool!"

I told her to feel free to borrow whatever I had and watched as the two got into the black convertible Emily Michelle had gotten when she received her driver's license. I waved goodbye as Emily placed the sunglasses atop her head, grinned at me, and then reversed out of the driveway.

Soon everyone was out of the house and it was suddenly very quiet. Nannie came down, already dressed and declared that she had to make a trip to town in order to buy some new gardening books and then she might check up on one of her girlfriends. I told her to have fun and she wished me luck on my task for the day.

I went upstairs to fix myself, throwing on a pair of black slacks, a t-shirt and a black blazer. I was about to grab for my sunglasses when I remember I'd let Emily borrow them. No matter. I pulled out one of my suitcases and opened it. Spread out through my clothes were countless other sunglasses that I had accumulated over my career. I'd needed them whenever I went out. I chose another black pair similar to the one I lent Emily Michelle, but this one had a sleeker, square-ish design and I placed them on top of my head just like my younger sister had done.

Heading downstairs, I grabbed my keys from the fireplace mantle and left. In the garage was a new Range Rover that my teammates had bought me for my retirement and I smiled. For a bunch of guys, they could be very sweet at times. I started up my car and headed down the road.

Stoneybrook mornings hadn't changed much. There was the occasional bus that past and a handful of kids who were heading to school with their lunch boxes and backpacks. I waited idly as a stream of elementary kids crossed the street. From inside my bag, I heard my cell phone ring. Digging inside I pulled it out and flipped it open.

"Thomas." I barked into the phone as I continued driving.

"Kristy!" a slightly familiar voice, though I couldn't quite place it.

"Uh, yes?" I paused, unsure.

"It's me, Kristy. Mallory!" Mallory Pike's identity was revealed. Mallory was one of the junior members of the BSC when we were in business—she was another of my best friends.

"Mallory? Mallory! Oh my Lord, I haven't—how are you? Where are you?"

Mallory let out a laugh. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for your welcoming party. But I had a difficult chapter to work out and my publisher kept moving the deadline closer and closer."

"I know how that can be." I told her. "How have you been?"

"Very well. I miss Stoneybrook. I've been in New York for the past five years. Jessi and I are flat mates."

"Flat mates?" I repeated.

"Roommates." Mal elucidated. "I hang out with J.K. Rowling whenever she has free time."

"Get OUT!" I exclaimed loudly. Mal is an extremely talented writer, but it was hard to imagine that someone I knew actually associated with the writer of the Harry Potter series.

"No, I'm serious." She replied, sounding very serious. "She's a very sweet woman."

I smiled. "That's great. How is Jessi?" Jessica Ramsey was also a junior member of the BSC, again, a great friend of mine.

"Jessi's great. She's one of the top dancers at the Dance N.Y. Company." Mal said.

"Tell her I think that's totally awesome. You both are doing exactly what I always knew you would do. I'm so proud."

"Yeah. Same goes for you." She replied.

We chatted for a while longer, in fact; all the way to the community centre before I told her I had to go but really wanted to see her and Jessi again soon.

"You will be. This summer Jessi has her ten-year high school reunion. We'll be visiting all of you then."

"What about yours?" Even though Jessi and Mal were best friends, they didn't graduate at the same school. Mal attended a private school called Riverdale, which was outside of Stoneybrook.

"Riverdale had their ceremony already." Mal said. "It was a surprising...event."

I laughed at that and told her that I had to go but for her to call again soon. I also let her know that I wanted to talk to Jessi ASAP to hear her story. I hung up the phone, tossed it back into my purse and headed up the stairs of the Stoneybrook Community Centre.

"Of course we would be happy to open a space in the community centre for you, Ms. Thomas!" A stout, pudgy man said from behind a desk. I smiled neutrally and gave a gracious nod. I had just given my pitch for a community softball team and the head of the centre—a Mr. Dufford—had eagerly agreed that the activity was something that could be used for the kids. However, from the way his eyes lit up when he looked at me—or rather my career image—that I could have told him my idea was to teach kids sky-diving while playing an accordion and he would have thought the idea was, as he put it, "just splendid!"

"Summer is fast approaching and we definitely want more participation with the youth of Stoneybrook. With your influence and ah, prestige, I'm sure there will be dozens of kids rushing to sign up."

"That'll certainly give me an idea of who would be a good base-runner." I joked.

Mr. Dufford gave me a blank stare before he realized I was joking and gave a forced laugh.

"When do you think it would be possible to start the program?" I asked eagerly, wanting to get over this meeting and back home so I could start planning.

"Whenever you're ready, Ms. Thomas." Mr. Dufford told me. "But it would be appreciated if you turned in a brief outline of your idea—exactly what you plan to accomplish and such—"

"Oh, that won't be a problem." I cut in without meaning to.

Mr. Dufford just smiled and sheepishly slid me a piece of paper and modestly asked for my autograph.

"Of course." I replied. I signed my name with an extra flourish and handed it back to him.

Mr. Dufford admired it for only a few moments more before he asked if I would mind signing a few softballs in the sport's closet. I didn't mind doing it, I was used to it by then but I was dying to get home and start on my outline so I could prepare before summer started.

Despite the fact that I was anxious to get my outline done, my stomach gave a loud grumble as I was heading out of the community centre and I stopped by a restaurant where I used to hang out when I was younger. The Argo was the first thing that I had seen with drastic changes since I arrived back in Stoneybrook. The varnished wood walls and waxed parquet floors were replaced with immaculate white walls, large windows that ran the length of the restaurant's walls, glass tables with contemporary chairs in red, blue, yellow and orange. It was all very modern and unsettling because the booth that I used to sit at was replaced with a salad bar that looked like a rocket ship.

I dug into a turkey sandwich with ranch dressing as I scribbled notes in a little notebook I carry around. At one point in my writing, I happened to glance up and noticed that a group of teenagers were furtively staring at me; when my eyes met theirs they quickly looked away and I smiled. The phone in my bag gave another ring and I poked around until I was able to pull it out.

"Hello?" I asked, though it sounded more like, "Muf-foe?" because of the turkey mashing around in my mouth.

"Hello?" came another voice. "I'm sorry, I must have the wrong numbe—"

"Mary Anne!" I exclaimed, nearly choking on the food in my mouth. After I had swallowed, I repeated myself. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. I'm in the car now; I just got off from work. I need to wind down, do you want to go shopping or something?"

"Sure." I said, wiping my mouth with a napkin. "I'm at the Argo right now. I'll meet you at the Washington Mall?"

"Sure." She replied.

We hung up and I grabbed the bill and headed to the front counter.

"Kristy, I heard you were back." A male voice said as I rummaged around in my wallet for a bill small enough for the restaurant to change.

"Yeah, I—" I looked up and stopped mid-sentence in complete shock of the person standing behind the register. "Logan? Logan Bruno?"

"Yup, that's me." Logan smiled bashfully. "How have you been, Kristy?"

"Well, I—uh, fine, I guess. Great. What are you doing here?" I asked, tilting my head to the side. "Why aren't you like, taking my place in the majors or something?"

Logan laughed at that. "I had a bad injury with my back junior year at college. I haven't been able to do much more than work here and teach driver's Ed. Over at Stony Brook High."

"Oh, Logan. I'm so sorry." My heart suddenly felt heavy. Logan used to be a very good friend of mine and even though I had heard next to nothing of him these past fifteen years, it still hurt that a fellow athlete had to give up their dream just because of an injury.

"It's no big deal." He said with a shrug. "There's a lot going for me... How's Mary Anne?"

That last part was filled with a surge of hope that he was desperately trying to hide.

"She's doing alright. She's a teacher over at SES—don't you know?"

Logan smiled. "Yes. I do. My daughter had her for a teacher two years ago."

"D-daughter?" I repeated. "You have children now?"

"Yeah. But Cokie didn't want any more after our first child."

"COKIE MASON?!" I exploded. "Oh, Logan, _please_ tell me you're joking." The bigmouth from my youth emerged. I couldn't help it. I always knew Logan was a boy, but I didn't think even _he_ could be that stupid. "You actually _married_ Cokie Mason? Why?"

Logan's smile left his face and he shook his head. "Seemed like a good idea at the time." He said sarcastically but not with any anger. "I know, I know. I know you and the BSC didn't liker her," I snorted without meaning to, "but, I don't know. I was stupid. We went out together in high school and all through college. She stuck by me when I got injured, I thought we would stick together through other things. I was wrong though. We're divorced now."

I gave him a sad smile. "I'm sorry about that, too."

"Don't be. It's taught me a lot." He told me.

I paid the bill and left with a strange feeling inside. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It was too weird. Everyone in the BSC knew Cokie liked Logan since forever but we never thought there would ever be any promise to their relationship. I had just grown so used to the idea that Logan was Mary Anne's boyfriend. Forever and ever and all that jazz.

I brought up the meeting with Logan to Mary Anne, who took it in stride. She said it was a little weird seeing the two together and married with a kid but what else could she do? She held her head high during parent-teacher conferences even though Cokie still had that smirk she had all through middle school. Mary Anne got a little teary when she finished her story but she held it together while we bustled through the Washington mall and wondered whether we should start Christmas shopping now, even before summer started so it would all be over and done with.

When I got home that day, it was almost five o' clock and I sat around with Karen and Emily and Samantha to discuss our day. It was nice. Just the four of us girls and mom and Nannie when they came home. It made me feel safer and more secure than I had ever felt with even five bodyguards leading me back to my hotel room when the crowds were particularly forceful or demanding. I just couldn't wait until I started to really feel that way on my own. When I became just the regular Kristy Thomas of Stoneybrook, instead of Kristin Thomas, the major-leaguer.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

The weeks flew by and the cool, fresh weather of spring gave way to a warmer, muskier breeze that flew through the trees and woke me up in the mornings shortly after I decided it would be warm enough to sleep with the window open. My room began to look like it had during my teenage years: my clothes were strewn all over the place, my memorabilia of my baseball career was flung hap-hazardly on my desk, chairs, and bureau space. This was the sight I awoke to every morning and I had to admit I liked it a lot. The fact that no maid came in to clean it up every night was even better. The mess just went to show that a true person lived there. Of course, I wouldn't leave it like this. I would clean it up eventually so there would be plenty of room to mess it up again.

This lazy, unimportant thought drifted into my mind as I curled into a ball around my big, fluffy pillow and looked around my room. My heart ached gently as I gazed at all the old pictures that I had on my walls ever since I was younger. There was a picture of my old collie, Louie, and me. One with my older brothers, myself, and David Michael playing baseball in the backyard of my old house. And on the nightstand right next to me was a medium-sized frame that held two pictures; on the left side was a picture of the entire Baby-sitters Club at thirteen-years-old. The right side had us the day I came home and showed just how much we had changed. I still had a hard time looking at it just because it was so different.

Groaning, I pulled myself up. It was useless to cry about this anymore. It was not like I could reach back in time and get back all the years I had lost. And really, they weren't truly lost—I had some of my best and most memorable years playing baseball. There was really no reason for any regrets.

The rest of the school year flew by for my youngest siblings. On June 6th, Emily had her graduation ceremony at the SHS gym. My family and I cheered loudly as she stepped up to the podium to receive her diploma and then again as she stepped up to give her salutatorian speech. Emily spoke clearly and beautifully and I felt my chest puff up with pride.

The ceremony took a little over an hour and when it was over, the gym was positively crowded with so many crying students and parents I felt a little faint. Sam tapped on my shoulder and I looked up at him and he smiled and told me that we were all going to head to Emily's favourite restaurant to celebrate. We had special reservations for us and all of Emily's friends and he wanted me to get her while everyone piled into their cars.

I nodded and made my way through the crowd. It took some doing because every few feet I had someone stop me to ask for a picture or an autograph. I smiled graciously but by the time I reached the end of the gym where Emily stood with a bunch of her friends, all talking simultaneously with one of their teachers, I felt sweaty and slightly irritated from all the jostling about me.

"Emily!" I called out, my voice carrying over the other ones in front of me. Emily glanced over at me and smiled brightly. One of her guy friends tapped her shoulder and seemed to ask her something. Emily nodded and frantically waved for me to join them. I heaved a sigh and made my way over to where she stood.

"Emily, we're going to go to your party soon." I told her.

"I know. I'm sorry, but my friends were wondering if they could have your autograph." Emily told me. "They're all fans, especially Jamie."

At that name, I frowned slightly before I turned to look at the boy she called Jamie and gasped. Emily was a friend of my very favourite baby-sitting charges, Jamie Newton!

"Jamie!" I exclaimed. "Oh my…" I was speechless. I could barely recognize him. He was so grown-up. Such a change from the little boy that I used to sit for ever since he was a tiny boy playing with his little sister, Lucy. "I forgot, you're Emily's age. Congratulations on graduating!" I gave him a fierce hug and learned that he was the captain of the baseball team and the swim team.

"That's wonderful." I told him as I signed a bunch of papers for Emily's friends. "I'm so proud of you."

"I'm proud of you, too, Kristy." Jamie said.

"May I have an autograph, too, please?" another voice asked.

"Sure." I replied. I took the notepad that was offered to me but couldn't resist asking Jamie how his mother was, how Lucy was doing (she was just about to start high school), and what plans he had. He said that he was going to be going to Stamford University, where Emily was going too.

I nodded and looked down at the paper and finished writing, "To a great fan. With Love, Kristin Thomas." I wasn't exactly a poet but people always seemed to appreciate my sentiments.

"Thanks." The person said as I handed it back quickly.

I was about to be introduced to the rest of Emily's friends but the voice spoke up again.

"Ah, I see you use 'Kristin' when you sign. I recall you used to get on me all the time just because I teased you about it."

Feeling curious, I turned around to the person speaking. The moment I set my eyes on him, I wished that I hadn't. My heart leaped out of my chest and my stomach felt like it had just been set on fire and then it quickly froze over.

"Car—Cary…Retlin?" I choked out his name as if my lungs had suddenly collapsed and it took all my power not to pass out.

"Kristy, are you feeling okay?" Emily asked. "Should I get you some water from the refreshment table?" she started away.

"No, Emily, WAIT!" I screamed. I wanted to add, 'don't leave me here alone with _him_' but my mouth went try and I struggled to shake my head. "I'm fine."

Emily nodded and then turned to Cary. "Mr. Retlin, I want you to meet my older sister, Kristy."

"I know her." Cary said with a smirk.

"We've met before." I retorted, infuriated by his expression.

"Wonderful." Emily replied, completely oblivious to the tension that had suddenly exploded around me. "Mr. Retlin is my creative writing teacher for AP class. I couldn't write at all before I took his class but I'm much better now."

I nodded numbly, still staring intensely at Cary. Cary Retlin. My mind was frozen, completely inoperable at the moment. But my heart was pounding wildly and my legs were shaking. 'Get out of here!' my body screamed at me. Cary…the boy who had almost ruined my life when we were in high school. Who took away any ounce of self-respect that I might have had. The one who had catalyzed my decision to leave Stoneybrook. Here he was. Popping up like everyone had been doing since I came back.

Cary and I used to be arch rivals in middle school. Then when we got to high school we started… dating each other. It was one summer that I pushed out of my mind so that I wouldn't have to be tormented by it.

"…And Mr. Retlin is a big fan of yours, Kristy." Emily droned on. "He's always asking how you are doing, what we've heard from of you and—"

"Emily, I believe you're embarrassing your sister." Cary interrupted with a short laugh and smug look in his eye as he looked at me. It was the most disgusting leer I had ever seen and it took everything in my power not to punch him right in the nose.

Cary looked at me intently and cocked his head to the side. A clump of his dirty blonde hair fell into his eyes. Amazing. He still had that scraggly haircut from his preteen years…he probably never grew up. "Kristy—Kristin, you really don't look to well. Perhaps you _could_ use some water."

I tried to shake my head but Cary had already turned and was heading away. Fine with me. I took hold of Emily's arm and pulled her away towards the entrance.

"Come on, Em." I told her.

"Kristy, Mr. Retlin—" she protested.

"It's his own fault for suggesting a drink when I told him I'm perfectly fine." I said, sounding more than a little bitter. "Besides, we have reservations at your favourite restaurant. We don't want to lose them."

I practically dragged Emily out the door but I could not help it. I had no intention of accepting any food or beverages from Cary Retlin.


End file.
